Nils Hogner (1887-1970) Portrait of a Navajo Man signed and dated 'Hogner - 27' (lower right), indistinctly inscribed 'BITANMS' (upper left), inscribed and dated 'To Mary Beth Green / from her Real True / Friends Dorothy & Nils Hogner / Ariz. 1932' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 16 x 13in framed 20 1/2 x 17 1/2in Painted in 1927. Footnotes: Provenance Mary Beth Green, acquired directly from the artist, 1932. Private collection, Portland, Oregon. Swedish-born printmaker, muralist, portrait painter and book illustrator Nils Hogner was the proprietor of the Klagetoh Trading Post in Arizona when the present portrait was executed. Married to a Navajo woman, Hogner ran the trading post from the early 1920s to the early 1930s. Hogner was married to his second wife, children's book author Dorothy Childs, by the time this painting was gifted to friend Mary Beth Green in 1932. Together the couple collaborated on more than 40 children's books, often with Southwestern themes.